Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Cliches of the World

Grasping at straws for another post, I think I've seen the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm going to pin my hope to a post on cliches. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. So if I can get everybody's buy-in, we'll chew the fat with a little game listing as many of your favorite cliches as we can find -- and I think we can see eye to eye that idioms will work as well.

Sound like a plan? So pull out all those sports cliches, for this ought to be a can of corn. And the buck stops here for all those business cliches as well. Marriage and children cliches will also do the trick. Any cliches will work. None of this should really take two shakes of a lamb's tail, because with all those thinkers we've got out there in The Realm of Possibility, this should be as easy as pie.

Whenever a cliche pops into your mind, don't be hard-headed. Fork them out in the comments stream. We've got a while, y'know, cause Rome wasn't built in a day.

[Note: Cliches are one of the ultimate no-nos in narrative writing, btw. You can use them in dialogue for characterization, at times, but it's just plain lazy to use them in your prose. If you do it, you better have a darn good reason. Better yet, don't do it.]

[Additional note: Without Googling, can anyone name the classic rock group and album the title of this post came from (it was the title of a cut from the LP - actually, the whole song title was Cliches of the World (B Movie))? Ten points to Gryffindor if you can tell me.]

Now, cliche me.

14 comments:

Rich said...

I don't know the title of the album, but I believe The Kinks recorded that song.

Five points to Gryffindor.

They're good, but they don't hold a candle to Aerosmith.

Five hundred points from Gryffindor and given to Slytherrin.
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
[By the way, b, thanks :) for the post at your blog. Made my day. I responded, but my saying thanks is probably more intelligent-sounding than the response :(]

Diabolical Genius said...

Not so fast B, I think we need to table that discussion until we can bring in some subject matter experts who can run this to ground.

If you want my two cents, I just want to make sure we don't get the cart before the horse and end up with egg on our face.

The Kinks certainly didn't reinvent the wheel, but they blazed a new trail and that's where the rubber meets the road.

Rich said...

Better late than never, Ken. You just came in under the wire before I was going to say that this post bites the dust.

Still, if only you and I going to carry the team on this post, maybe it's time we throw in the towel.

Maybe it's not do or die just yet, but we're in the eleventh hour here of Rome's twelve, and if the fish ain't biting then it's ashes to ashes and dust to dust for this post.

DougALug said...

Rich/Ken

Here is an idea for a post. How about calling it something like X degrees of separation. Start with an item/object/person/place Using one commmon word from the current state for the seed of the transitioned state. Here are two examples:

1) Bart Simpson
2) O.J. Simpson (The Juice)
3) Juice Newton
4) Orange Juice
5) Orange Julius
6) King Julius Caesar
7) Elvis Presley (The King)
8) Lisa Marie Presley
9) Lisa Marie Simpson (Bart's sister)

Or

1) Poison Ivy
2) Ivy League
3) Justice League of America
4) Captain America
5) Captain Cave Man
6) The Bat Cave
7) Batman

What do you think?

-Doug

DougALug said...

You guys sound like that ESPN commercial where the guy is trying to talk to his girlfriend using sport's cliche's

-Doug

Rich said...

Doug,

That pill's hard to swallow and hopefully you're pulling our leg because it makes either me or Ken sound like the girlfriend, and neither one of us going to second that notion. Surely you were just yanking our chains.

DougALug said...

Rich,

Which one of you didn't understand the cliche's?

-Doug

Diabolical Genius said...

Doug,

Oh, no you didn't. I know that you didn't just get all up in Rich's mix. You better step off. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.

[My attempt at some fad cliches. In my book, a fad cliche is even worse than one of the tired old saws that's been around the block.]

Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada.

Rich said...

b, b... b... b... b...

This is a no-brainer. The Kinks were part of the British Invasion whereupon the American music scene was swept off it's feet. They're listed with all the money groups from Great Britain like the Beatles, The Who, and The Stones who brought us to our knees, musically-speaking.

Aerosmith's standing test of time is only because those long in the tooth, old as dirt geezers won't leave well enough alone and go their own way. They're too thick-headed to know their day is done.

Aerosmith's lone classic song, Dream On, doesn't hold a candle to immortals like Lola and You Really Got Me and Well Respected Man and State of Confusion (oops, just gave away something big there) and Do It Again and the list goes on.

I'd love to keep arguing this, but time flies when you're having so much fun, and now I need to get my son from school. I'll be leaving in a split second.

Please reconsider, because this is a slam dunk for the Kinks.

:)

Rich said...

Sorry, b, but songs like Janie's Got a Gun, Walk This Way, and love themes from Armageddon... well, they just don't cut the mustard. If you think they have some other old as the hills classic song, I believe it's time you lay your cards out on the table. As you well know, the bottom's falling out of any of their new music.

Still, five additional points to Gryffindor for having the lights go on and guessing State of Confusion. You really pulled that one out of the hat. That leaves you 490 in the hole until you come to grips with the fact that the Davies brothers made better music than Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were ever capable of.
-- -- -- -- -- --
Doug,

Although it's obvious that of the two of us it would be Kenneth who didn't "get" the cliches, I would be a few cards short of a full deck if I was sitting at a sportsbar hitting on him. I really don't see eye to eye with your notion that one of us is a boyfriend and the other is a girlfriend. If you keep on with this train of thought, I'm liable to blow a gasket. Then, you'll get your just desserts.

DougALug said...

Rich,

Okay, I must throw my hat in the ring. You and B are breaking the bank with your silly reparte. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, which I happen to be, to know that Aerosmith is a far better band than the Kinks. You are way out in left field on this one.

Musically superior, and a larger fan base, Aerosmith wins by a mile it is no contest. You are clearly grasping at straws on this one. You may not like their stuff but Aerosmith has The Kinks dead to rights. They aren't pretty and they don't smell good, but Aersmith has covered all the bases with rock balads to gritty-ditties and their numbers don't lie.

So get off your high horse and concede, because resistance is futile.

-Doug

Rich said...

It sounds like I'm on an island and though it may seem my superior taste is taking on water, I'll concede nothing. Rest assured, I'm going down with the ship on this one.

Betsy's right, though. Arguing like this just leaves everything up in the air, and as far as it goes, we're all going to end up saying, "I'll agree to disagree."

So as far as this goes, we're beating a dead horse. If you guys don't see eye to eye, then I'll just walk away thinking your tastes are musically-challenged. Every dog has it's day, though. It's just that Aerosmith's day is done. While the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Famers -- The Kinks -- inducted in 1990 continue to rebound again and again as cult heroes because history repeats itself, very shortly Aerosmith shall lose their grip in any classic radio set format and quickly after will be forgotten.

I won't argue anymore, even though winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. We're liable to take it up another level, and since I'm right, you guys/gals will get all bent out of shape. At this point, I'll just say humbly say, you win, and turn the other cheek, while knowing in my heart for Pete's sake that I really just stuck a fork in the "Aerosmith is better" fallacy.

Now, I guess I'll give it a rest.

DougALug said...

Rich,

Rest In Peace my wayward friend, that is why they make red cars and white cars. It only goes to show that there is no accounting for taste.

Talk about beating a dead horse how many times have the Kinko-boys reissued the same songs? It sounds to me like they are grasping at straws. It is fourth and long and they need a good play to stay in the game.

I can only say that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. Granted the Kinks had some good tunes, but their influence can't hold a candle to that of the bad boys from Boston. Aerosmith will get their day in the sun and be Rock and Roll Hall of Famers too its as sure as the sun rising in the East. The game is early and there's still plenty of time left and unlike the Kinks, they aren't shooting blanks.

Quite frankly, neither band lights my fire, but I've stated my peace, and in spite of your objections, you that it will all come out in the wash so don't worry about it.

-Doug

Diabolical Genius said...

sigh Those were the good old days.